Archive For September, 2008

>We started the first Reel News Tour yesterday in Brighton and will be continuing on from Wednesday in Newcastle, Thursday in Glasgow, Saturday in Nottingham and Sunday we return yet again to the Foundry in London.

The films include coverage of the 2008 Climate Camp, expose more in the UK Academy school takeover, and recent updates on the County Mayo conflict against the Shell corporation’s Irish Corrib Gas Project.

Issue 15 of Reel News is out now. It covers the 2008 Climate Camp, including the 15-minute film Covering Climate Camp, which looks at the police repression of journalists trying to cover the week in Kent. It also contains Press Freedom: Collateral Damage that was released several weeks back on Current TV.

Please support Reel News to keep our coverage going on the issues important to you.

All material on this blog – stills, video and print is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008. All Rights Reserved.Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive four-year video archive.

Ship tracking sites on the Internet confirmed the pipe-laying ship Solitaire had left Irish waters and was heading for dock in Glasgow for repairs after it was accidentally damaged before it could commence work last week.

Despite being very weak from her hunger strike, Maura held a press conference and was greeted by friends in some very emotional scenes.

Expecting trouble, the Garda called in an extra two van-loads of police, yet no ambulance was called, nor was a doctor on hand to check Maura’s health. An earlier health check that week said she was in good health, this coming as no surprise to anyone that knew Maura.

Friday had been an intense day, with two locals being arrested at their homes at 7am, one of those being Pat “Chief” O-Donnell, who according to locals is arrested at least once a week over the last few months. The charges are more often than not dropped and the reason for detaining him and others seems to be nothing more than time wasting, yet again another tactic of the “no arrest – no martyr” policy here in County Mayo.

BBC Political correspondent Andrew Marr once stated if a news headline ends in a question mark the answer is usually no. But in this instance it would seem the answer is a resounding yes, despite the Shell press release making no quote on Maura’s hunger strike, claiming the removal of the Solitaire was for repairs and repairs only.

As well as film director Ken Loach speaking out against Shell’s operations in County Mayo, yesterday the Guardian reported Erin Brockovich had began a verbal assault on the largest and most profitable oil and gas company in the world.

The previous day protestors occupied the rooftop of the Corrib Gas Project offices in Belmullet. Two of the three rooftop occupiers were not arrested, but merely detained at Belmullet police station a while, as names and addresses were confirmed. This policing yet again confirms the policy of no arrest in the area, that has continued for nearly two years, following superintendent Gannon’s “no martyr” statement in November 2006.

Around Glengad in County Mayo, the site of the pipeline landfall and Maura Harrington’s hunger strike, the response was mixed. Campaigners and residents were at first overjoyed, but added they would believe it when they saw it leave Irish waters, as Shell had continually lied to them over the six-year campaign.

One local remined others today that only yesterday the campaigners were being blamed for a bomb being left on the doorstep of Shell headquarters in Dublin.

Maura Harrington said she would only believe the Shell statement when she got a UK postcard from the ship.

On Monday night, 15 September, as the protests against the project reached a new level and Maura entered her ninth day on hunger strike, Shell reported a suspect device was left on the doorstep of the Shell E & P Ireland offices in Dublin.

Shell’s press release and subsequent reports immediately pointed the blame towards those opposed to the Corrib Gas Project. Residents and local campaigners denied they would resort to terrorism, stating their only device used was “the truth”.

Please support Reel News to keep our coverage going on the issues important to you.

All material on this blog – stills, video and print, unless otherwise stated – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008. All Rights Reserved.Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive four-year video archive.

On Monday 9 September 2008 National Union of Journalists (NUJ) General Secretary Jeremy Dear delivered a slamming attack on the erosion of UK civil liberties and press freedom at the Brighton TUC conference. The BBC video of the speech is here (59 minutes in).